Sunday, January 31, 2010

When you've really got nothing to say but lots of time to say it in, this is what you get. Olberman saying that criticism of Obama is racist. Partial transcript from "Countdown":

“…But our winners, these guys, assessing not the speech but the president himself. Eric Erickson, “cocky”; John Stossel said he hoped the president would admit he was, quote, arrogant. Jay Nordlinger, “looks arrogant whether he is arrogant or not”; Mark Thiessen, “defensive, arrogant”; John Hood, “flippant” and “arrogant.” Glenn Beck, “like a punk.”

Here’s a little secret: gathering sadly from witnessing it my whole life even from some in my own family, when racist white guys get together and they don’t want to be caught using any of the popular epithets that are in use every day in this country about black people, there’s a chance one of them or worse still a white guy who doesn’t get it, might wander in and hear the conversation. When there’s a risk even in saying uppity or forgetting his place, the racist white guys revert to euphemisms and code words and among the code word that they think they’re getting away with are “”cocky, flippant, punk, and especially arrogant.”

"An atheist organization is blasting the U.S. Postal Service for its plan to honor Mother Teresa with a commemorative stamp, saying it violates postal regulations against honoring "individuals whose principal achievements are associated with religious undertakings."

The Freedom from Religion Foundation is urging its supporters to boycott the stamp — and also to engage in a letter-writing campaign to spread the word about what it calls the "darker side" of Mother Teresa.

The stamp — set to be released on Aug. 26, which would have been Mother Teresa's 100th birthday — will recognize the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner for her humanitarian work, the Postal Service announced last month....

Postal Service spokesman Roy Betts expressed surprise at the protest, given the long list of previous honorees with strong religious backgrounds, including Malcolm X, the former chief spokesman for the Nation of Islam, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Hmmm... I'm no fan of Mother Teresa but she was certainly a distinguished person and, as such, a fair candidate to feature on a postage stamp, I would have thought. She undoubtedly did some good works and I don't see why her religious beliefs cancel that out. The opposition is just atheist bigotry, I think.

"A version of an iconic autobiography detailing a young Jewish girl’s two-year experience hiding from Nazis in a cramped “Secret Annex” has been pulled from the shelves of Culpeper County Public Schools.

“The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition,” a vivid memoir of Anne Frank’s private thoughts during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, will no longer be assigned to CCPS students, according to Jim Allen, director of instruction for the school system. This book is usually given to eighth-grade middle school English students to read.

Citing a parent’s concern over the sexual nature of the vagina passage in the definitive edition, Allen said school officials immediately chose to pull this version and use an alternative copy. “What we have asked is that this particular edition will not be taught,” Allen said from his office Wednesday morning. “I don’t want to make a big deal out of this. So we listened to the parent and we pulled it.”

Apparently, Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the sole survivor of the “Secret Annex,” felt the need to censor his daughter’s most intimate thoughts as well, eliminating about 30 percent of the original diary published in 1947. He omitted parts where Anne criticized her mother and other Jews living in the confined quarters as well as some sexually suggestive references. However, during the 50th anniversary of her death in a concentration camp, the Anne Frank Foundation published the unedited definitive version in 1995....

According to Amazon.com, “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” tops the list of commonly banned children’s books in public schools nationwide. The reason listed for banning this book is “for being too depressing for students.” Other books that made the Amazon list include “The Catcher in the Rye,” “Harry Potter,” “Of Mice and Men,” and “Harriet the Spy,” to name a few.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Must not forget that Obama is black???

We read:

"An American television presenter has come under fire for remarking that he forgot President Obama was black. Staunch liberal Chris Matthews said ‘I forgot he was black’ while commenting on Mr Obama’s State of the Union speech on Wednesday. ‘He is post-racial, by all appearances,’ the host of MSNBC said on the air. ‘I forgot he was black tonight for an hour.

And although the Democrat supporter meant it as praise, it quickly caused uproar – with claims that America’s projected ‘post-racial’ image is a simply myth. Many called the quote a troubling sign that blackness is viewed - perhaps unconsciously - as a handicap that still needs to be overcome. ‘As a black American I want people to remember who I am and where I come from without attaching assumptions about deficiency to it,’ said Dr Imani Perry, a professor at Princeton University’s Centre for African American Studies.

I think the critics have a point. Matthews knows as well as anybody else that blacks are a problem population but, like most Leftists, screams "racist" when anybody says as much. He just tripped up this time and inadvertently admitted his real thoughts. His offence is not racism but hypocrisy. It is not racist to admit reality, though it often is politically incorrect, of course.

"Auction website eBay has banned a board game based on popular UK television sitcom Dad's Army for being "offensive" and "associated with Nazis".A spokesman for the site said the game could "promote violence, hatred and racial or religious intolerance" because it bore swastikas on the box cover.

Stunned seller Dave Davidson, from Worcestershire in England said: "I couldn't believe it when they sent me an email telling me my Dad's Army board game could incite violence and hatred. "Its so annoying because any human being with an ounce of common sense can see Dad's Army is the most harmless TV programme in the world." "But instead of making a few quid and clearing some space, I've been made to look like I'm a racist or Nazi sympathiser. I'm very annoyed."

But Jenny Thomas, of eBay UK, said: "eBay will remove listings that bear the marks of organisations that promote hatred and racial intolerance and we are strict and unapologetic in adhering to this policy. "With 100 million listings globally we have to apply this rule to any item bearing such insignia, regardless of whether it is an innocent item like a board game."

The box of the 1970s game shows the famous cast of the comic TV show, such as Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson, alongside arrows of swastikas and one of a Union Flag, as seen in the opening credits of the programme [and above].

Thursday, January 28, 2010

"Retail chain Roger David has defended its decision to sell T-shirts depicting naked and bound women which feminists have decried as offensive "rape chic".

The shirts are part of the retailer's Blood Is The New Black fashion line.

One shows two near-naked women with a strap covering their eyes, and the other, based on a picture by American photographer Dan Monick, shows a young woman in a distressed and dishevelled state with a gag imprinted with the word Hollywood across her mouth....

Staff at Rodger David's head office in Melbourne declined to speak to The Courier-Mail yesterday. However, the retailer defended the T-shirts in a statement on Facebook, saying Blood Is The New Black gave artists a chance to display their work. "Art is meant to inspire and educate, and the meaning and interpretation is left in the hands of the viewer - we are here to inspire ideas, not mediate or control them," the statement says.

"New rules to be introduced by government decree will require people who upload videos onto the Internet to obtain authorization from the Communications Ministry similar to that required by television broadcasters, drastically reducing freedom to communicate over the Web, opposition lawmakers have warned.

The decree is ostensibly an enactment of a European Union (EU) directive on product placement and is due to go into effect at the end of January after being subjected to a nonbinding appraisal by parliament.

On Thursday opposition lawmakers held a press conference in parliament to denounce the new rules -- which require government authorization for the uploading of videos, give individuals who claim to have been defamed a right of reply and prevent the replay of copyright material -- as a threat to freedom of expression.

"The decree subjects the transmission of images on the Web to rules typical of television and requires prior ministerial authorization, with an incredible limitation on the way the Internet currently functions," opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Paolo Gentiloni told the press conference.

Article 4 of the decree specifies that the dissemination over the Internet "of moving pictures, whether or not accompanied by sound," requires ministerial authorization. Critics say it will therefore apply to the Web sites of newspapers, to IPTV and to mobile TV, obliging them to take on the same status as television broadcasters.

"Italy joins the club of the censors, together with China, Iran and North Korea," said Gentiloni's party colleague Vincenzo Vita.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

"Students in some Riverside County schools are now without certain dictionaries, as the district banned them.

Officials with the Menifee Union School District say the growing controversy over the removal of a dictionary from the classroom has led to the misconception that all dictionaries have been pulled. The district is responding to the controversy that is attracting national and international media coverage after officials temporarily removed copies of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition for containing graphic terms like “oral sex.”

A parent volunteer working in her son’s classroom came across the term, according to Betti Cadmus, and submitted a written complaint to the school’s principal, who contacted the assistant superintendent of curriculum. The complaint resulted in the district removing the dictionaries from the fourth- and fifth-grade reference section at Oak Meadows Elementary School, which Cadmus said Monday was the only district school to be using that dictionary.

“One of the misconceptions is that all dictionaries are being banned from our district,” Cadmus said. “That could not be farther from the truth. There are dictionaries available for use at all school sites; the dictionaries (in question) are still on site, but are temporarily not in use.”

Cadmus said it was not just one parent that complained, but that there was a growing parent concern at Oak Meadows Elementary over the explicit term, which it turns out was not contained in the dictionary; though other words that might be considered age-inappropriate were found.

The feminists haven't even seen the ad but they want to ban it. No criticism of abortion may be allowed.

"A national coalition of women's groups called on CBS on Monday to scrap its plan to broadcast an ad during the Super Bowl featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, which critics say is likely to convey an anti-abortion message. "An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year -- an event designed to bring Americans together," said Jemhu Greene, president of the New York-based Women's Media Center.

The center was coordinating the protest with backing from the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority and other groups.

CBS said it has approved the script for the 30-second ad and has given no indication that the protest would have an impact. A network spokesman, Dana McClintock, said CBS would ensure that any issue-oriented ad was "appropriate for air."

The ad -- paid for by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family -- is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow's pregnancy in 1987 with a theme of "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life." After getting sick during a mission trip to the Philippines, she ignored a recommendation by doctors to abort her fifth child and gave birth to Tim, who went on to win the 2007 Heisman Trophy while helping his Florida team to two BCS championships.

"Writing "fake Maori" on their faces with marker pen tattoos to attract tourists has landed a Kiwi tour operator in hot water. The venture, called Discovery Heritage Centre, has admitted hiring Europeans, including French and Israelis, to dress in traditional Maori outfits and poke their tongues out in Maori war dance custom to lure tourists from cruise ships.

The director of the company has added fuel to the fire by saying she's only employing the "fakes" because Maori people in the North Island New Zealand town of Tauranga are too lazy to work. "Some of our Maori are too slack to promote themselves. Some of our Maori are too lazy to get out of bed to do that," Terina Puriri told the Herald on Sunday. "They don't turn up and it's a known thing for Tauranga Maori to do that."

The company provides "cultural liaison" and on-board dance performances for cruise ship tourists. Performers include a few authentic part-indigenous people and at least three foreigners dressed in feathered robes, holding traditional wooden weapons and with pen marks scrawled on their faces.

Ms Puriri said she had no problem using foreigners, adding that tourists didn't mind because they "love us purely because we are proud of (Maori) culture and we look beautiful".

"An advertisement for a "midget" or "large-chested woman" to act as a beer wench has landed some New Zealand sports fans in controversy. The men placed an ad for a "beer bitch" to fetch cold drinks for them at the Rugby Sevens in Wellington next month. The lucky woman would be rewarded with "cuddles and shoulder rides", wrote the men, who run a blog called When in Rome Bro.

The ad outraged the organisation Little People of New Zealand, with spokeswoman Caela Brackenbury telling The Dominion Post newspaper it was hurtful to refer to small people as midgets. "It goes along on par with the word 'n*gger'. It's seen in that light," said Ms Brackenbury, whose organisation's motto is "Walk tall".[LOL!]

It seemed many others agreed. The ad was pulled off website Trade Me after 27 complaints were received.

But 11 women found no fault with it, enthusiastically applying for the gig with photographs and blurbs about their "bubbly" nature. Cake decorator Melissa Tapa told the Post she applied for the job to meet new people and try something different, and did not believe the ad was discriminatory. "I'm not a PC person," the young woman said.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Bigotry at a Jesuit university

You might expect St Louis university to be bigoted in favor of Catholicism. But you would not know much about present-day Catholic universities if you did. The loyalty to the Pope and the zeal for the purity of Roman doctrine that was once central to the Society of Jesus is long gone. Their founder would see the so-called Jesuits of today as the Apostles of the Devil. These days, their bigotry is in favor of Islam and against any critical examination of it. St. Ignatius of Loyola would be astounded by them.

"Does a double-standard exist at Saint Louis University? Recent events at the Jesuit university might cause you to believe one does.

This weekend, SLU’s Muslim Students’ Association hosted a three-day conference, “Saving Our Deen: Living a Muslim life in a not-so Muslim world,” at the school’s Busch Student Center. Part of the conference agenda — which included speakers from Chicago, Dallas, Maryland and Canada — was a 45-minute presentation entitled, “Recognizing Our Enemies,” by Shaykh Khalid Abdul Sattar of Maryland.

Three months ago, SLU officials blocked David Horowitz from coming to their campus to deliver a speech entitled, “An Evening with David Horowitz: Islamo-Fascism Awareness and Civil Rights.” They cited fears that his subject matter might include an attack on the Muslim faith.

Is there a difference between the two? Without attending each presentation, I cannot say, so I decided to look deeper into the people and organizations behind each presentation.

In researching the background of the MSA, I learned that, according to this article, documents seized by the FBI and entered as evidence in a Texas court revealed that MSA is a legacy project of the Muslim Brotherhood. In another article, this one by Douglas Farah, I learned the Muslim Brotherhood’s agenda includes “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.” Violence.

In researching Horowitz’s background, I found the organization that bears his name (David Horowitz Freedom Center) was established to institutionalize his campaigns against the Left and its anti-Americanism and that DHFC’s mission is to defend the principles of individual freedom, the rule of law, private property, and limited government. Non-violence.

An interesting comment about NYC taste from a conservative Australian businessman presently in NYC

He is commenting after having been part of the audience for a Letterman show and after having greatly enjoyed Giacomo Puccini's Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera:

"Night Time and we headed to DANGERFIELDS. It felt very “Seinfeld” inside and we were excited and all ready to be entertained!!! We even saw Youtube footage of Seinfeld performing at this place.

So anyway, the Crowd Warm up guy was rubbish – arrgh then the first comedian was an excellent impersonator but needed MAJOR work on his script.

THEN, there was this 50 year old lady who ONLY told VULGAR SEX jokes!! The poor woman was degrading herself and women in general without even realising it!! – Ewwwww how REPULSIVE!!

Lastly, the BEST guy in the place was up there being one of the worst acts we had ever seen. Susan and I both ran out of this place as fast as we could in the end and felt like absolute crap.

When we were outside I was being a little too extraverted and talked loudly about how CRAP the place was to EVERYONE around me within earshot (including the next group of customers about to enter)!! I was ropable!!

THEN, when we came to a traffic light a fellow audience member who had also obviously left in a hurry JOINED me in the LOUD criticism. We were both able to let off a little steam about the place to one another (thank God there was at least 1 other person who thought the comics stank!).

We were suddenly the very best of friends – haha and both of our moods got better after finding each other. I wanted to jump in a bath and scrub myself clean – arrrgh but I don’t think any amount of scrubbing would get me clean again... “It won’t come off” -- lol.

So yes, this place was a REAL let down!! Susan and I BOTH felt we should have been PAID to go there not the other way around!! In fact we noticed the crowd warm up comic on David Letterman was also awful!!

We have concluded the standard of American Stand Up comics seems to be very low indeed!! .. especially when this place has received RAVE reviews and most of the crowd appeared to think these comics were actually funny!! The jokes told were ONLY about RACE and SEX I mean it really doesn’t take much of a brain to build a repertoire around these 2 subjects.

We went to a comedy night in Melbourne which had us all laughing our pants off – I think these New York comics need to learn something from our Melbourne performers, that’s for sure!! MAYBE, I can stay here and make 100 Million dollars being a stand up comic, if this is their standard it really is too easy!!

The only thing we could take from the place, was the fact so many well-known comics had actually performed there at some point in the past.

With the way I am feeling right NOW, I am craving going home and am soo sick of this place ... But the Comedy night was also sooooooooooooooo bad I just want to run as far away from it as I can – BUT, then I think of the OPERA *sigh* and I smile and feel better.

When I think of all the people who were having such a GREAT TIME at the comedy night again, I wonder about the difference in “realities” between us – would these same people enjoy the Opera?? Perhaps they would but for different reasons to Susan and me??? Very interesting!!! Maybe the HUGE population of people in New York allows one to see the reality differences between people more easily??

I have also learnt not to judge people negatively for being who they are. I think it is important to allow people to find happiness within their own reality and as long as their reality is not imposed on mine (being FORCED to inhale someone’s second hand cigarette smoke still bugs me for example) then I will enjoy simply being an observer and wish them all the best!!

What do American readers here think about all that? NYC is very politically correct. Is politically correctness just a cover for bad taste?

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Things the media must not mention

An interesting email from a reader below -- concerning the screenshot above:

"When googling the search term "described as black males" an entry was included using the phrase: "Longo says it appears four Hispanic males were socializing in front of a trailer when two black males arrived and the confrontation took place. ... "

But when I clicked on the link, the article had edited out the politically incorrect reference to the perps as being black. The ethnic profile of the victims remained: Hispanic. Reporting black-Hispanic confrontations is taboo, apparently. But allowing readers to presume the killer may have been White is permissible.

Now the latest version of the report omits ALL ethnic descriptions. A great way to get assistance from the public in tracing the killers! The article ends: "Police are hoping community members will reach out to detectives with any information they have about the two armed men, who are reported to be still at large". If the media GAVE more information, the cops might GET more information. Though I suppose Americans are used to reading betweeen the lines and will assume that the killers were black unless it was otherwise mentioned.

But EVERY unflattering photograph of GWB had to be circulated as widely as possible, of course

"Former “Happy Days” star Scott Baio claims he has been barraged with death threats and accused of being a racist after posting an unflattering photo of Michelle Obama on Twitter along with the caption “WOW He wakes up to this every morning.”

Outraged users reportedly responded with angry Tweets such as “Scott Baio should be PUT DOWN and someone will PUT YOU DOWN.YOU; your WIFE and KID.” Another Tweeter even went as far as to alter an image of Baio’s young child with the caption “this is what Scott Baio wakes up [to].” That photo has since been removed.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Freedom of the press? What freedom of the Press?

Antitrust law trumps the 1st Amendment?

"The First Amendment prohibits Congress from making any law respecting the freedom of the press. Taken literally, of course, there's no such prohibition on the executive branch. Thus, it's apparently okay for the Justice Department to directly control the operations of newspapers.

As I discussed last year, the DOJ's Antitrust Division has been trying to dissolve a joint operating agreement between the Charleston Daily Mail and the Charleston Gazette. The DOJ said it was dissatisfied with the editorial quality of the Mail under the agreement. After nearly three years of litigation, the newspapers surrendered and will sign a new series of operating agreements at gunpoint.

That's not an exaggeration. The DOJ's proposed order expressly states the newspapers "shall enter into, and abide by the terms of, the Amended and Restated" joint operating agreement. The new agreement cannot be modified or terminated without the DOJ's written permission.

The DOJ order further states that, "The publication of the Charleston Daily Mail as a Daily Newspaper shall not be terminated unless it is a Failing Firm and the United States has given prior written approval." Even if the paper fails, the DOJ order also dictates how the Mail's assets must be disposed.

Finally, the DOJ order mandates a 50% discount for new subscriptions to the Daily Mail and prohibits the Gazette from matching any such discount.

So let's recap: The United States Government has forced two "independent" newspapers to sign a contract governing their business and editorial operations, prohibits one newspaper from ceasing to publish daily, and fixes subscription prices for both newspapers. All to protect "competition."

The DOJ order is still subject to a comment period and judicial review, but history suggests neither of these things will stand in the Antitrust Division's path. (And just to be clear, this is coming from DOJ bureaucrats, not the political leadership; this case started in the Bush administration, and there's been no significant policy change under the current regime.)

"It's very offensive," Sol Bellear of the New South Wales state Aboriginal Land Council said. "We see it as stealing Aboriginal culture and it is yet another example of the Aboriginal people of Australia being exploited. "It's been absolutely stolen without our permission and without consultation of the relevant dance groups within Aboriginal Australia."

Domnina, 25, and Shabalin, 27, were world champions in 2009 and European champions in 2008, as well as three-time Russian national champions. They recently told the ice-skating website Golden Skate that they created the new dance routine as something different after watching Aboriginal dance routines over the internet.

Friday, January 22, 2010

"A 90-year-old Medal of Honor winner can keep his 21-foot flagpole in his front yard after a homeowner’s association dropped its request to remove it, a spokesman for Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said Tuesday. The Sussex Square homeowners’ association likewise has agreed to drop threats to take legal action against retired Army Col. Van T. Barfoot, Warner spokesman Kevin Hall said.

The association had threatened to take Barfoot, a Mississippi native, to court if he failed to remove the pole from his suburban Richmond home by Friday. It had said the pole violated the neighborhood’s aesthetic guidelines.

In a letter last week, Webb urged the association to “consider the exceptional nature of Col. Barfoot’s service when considering his pride and determination in honoring our flag.”

Barfoot was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions while his platoon was under German assault near Carano, Italy, in May 1944. He was credited with standing up to three German tanks with a bazooka and stopping their advance. He also received the Purple Heart and other decorations, and served in Korea and Vietnam before retiring from the service in 1974.

"A $26,000 contribution to the initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California appears to have cost a 96-year-old former Mormon temple president his seat on the board that oversees Oakland's historic Paramount Theatre.

Amid rising criticism from the gay community, Mayor Ron Dellums said Tuesday that he was putting on hold the reappointment of Lorenzo Hoopes, most likely signaling an end to Hoopes' 30-plus years on the Paramount board. "The community is asking us to reconsider, and that is what we are going to do," mayoral spokesman Paul Rose said.

Hoopes, a past president of the Mormon temple in Oakland as well as a former Safeway executive, has been on the Paramount board since before the downtown theater was restored in the early 1970s.

"A lower court's "hostility" towards Christianity will stand after the U.S. Supreme Court today refused to intervene in a school district's censorship of a kindergartener's choice of literature for a class reading. "By refusing to hear Mrs. Busch's case, the U.S. Supreme Court has endorsed the kind of hostility toward religion that should never be found in an American public school," said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, which took on the Newtown Square, Pa., case.

As WND reported, Donna Busch accepted an invitation to visit her son Wesley's kindergarten classroom at Culbertson Elementary School to read a passage of Wesley's favorite book to his classmates in October 2004. Wesley's teacher had invited Busch because the boy was the featured student of "All About Me," a school event to feature a particular student and emphasize the student's personal characteristics, preferences and personality in classroom activities.

During the "All About Me" activity, a child's parent may read aloud from the student's favorite book. In this case, Wesley, a Christian, chose the Bible. His mother planned to read from Psalm 118.

But when Donna Busch prepared to read from the Bible, Wesley's teacher instructed her not to do so until Principal Thomas Cook could determine whether it would be acceptable. According to the Rutherford Institute, the principal "informed Mrs. Busch that she could not read from the Bible in the classroom because it was against the law and that the reading would violate the 'separation of church and state.'"

Then school administrators offered Wesley's mother an opportunity to read from a book about witches, witchcraft and Halloween. She declined the invitation.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Arms Manufacturer Under Fire for Inscribing Bible citations on U.S. Weapons

A non-Christian would be unlikely to recognize the code as a Bible reference anyway

"A Michigan-based company that sells rifle scopes to the U.S. military is being investigated by ABC News and recieving of backlash from "religious freedom" activists after admitting it has added small biblical references to its products.

Trijicon of Wixom, Michigan, confirmed to ABCNews.com that it has always added biblical codes to sights and scopes it has sold the U.S. military. The company says the practice began under the company founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian from South Africa who was killed in a 2003 plane crash.

These coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ include examples like 2COR4:6. Though this combination of letters and numbers tends to blen in with regular serial numbers, this code is an apparent references to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the Bible's New Testament, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

The company's website describes its vision: "Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom... We believe that America is great when its people are good. This goodness has been based on Biblical standards throughout our history, and we will strive to follow those morals."

Of course, activists groups are now attacking the company and the military for purchasing the company's products... Meanwhile, the military says it had no knowledge Trijicon was including biblical references on its scopes. No word yet if this ABC investigation and the activist groups' pressure will force the DoD to drop its contracts with the company...

Are Muslims the only ones whose beliefs must be treated "sensitively"? An Indian Prime Minister lost her life over the sensitivities concerned but, "Hey, who cares?" the BBC seems to say. Could it be that Sikhs are traditional enemies of the Muslims?

"A BBC News presenter has been subjected to a deluge of personal abuse after fronting a documentary about one of the most controversial events in recent Indian history. Sonia Deol was forced to delete her page on the Facebook website amid a barrage of criticism from fellow Sikhs over her film about the Indian army storming the Golden Temple in Amritsar, one of the faith’s most holy shrines, in 1984.

Now protesters are planning a mass boycott of the licence fee in disgust at what they see as a slur on the controversial religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed in the raid. Many Sikhs consider him a saint and are furious that in Ms Deol’s documentary, 1984: A Sikh Story, he was described as a militant. They also claim he was depicted in the film in a similar way to Osama Bin Laden.

Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi ordered the assault on June 4, 1984, after Bhindranwale and up to 500 armed supporters took refuge in the holy site, apparently fearing arrest amid rising Sikh-Hindu tensions. Around 500 people died in the ensuing battle, which some Sikhs now refer to as ‘our 9/11’.

Operation Blue Star is believed to have led to the assassination of Mrs Gandhi, who was killed by two of her Sikh bodyguards four months after the attack. Her death triggered three days of attacks on Sikhs across India, in which 3,000 people were killed.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Jewish Fascist wants to silence Christians

She opposes not only freedom of speech but even freedom of beliefs!

"Chai Feldblum, the Georgetown University law professor nominated by President Obama to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has written that society should “not tolerate” any “private beliefs,” including religious beliefs, that may negatively affect homosexual “equality.”

Feldblum, whose nomination was advanced in a closed session of the Senate Health Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on December 12, published an article entitled “Moral Conflict and Liberty: Gay Rights and Religion” in the Brooklyn Law Review in 2006. “Just as we do not tolerate private racial beliefs that adversely affect African-Americans in the commercial arena, even if such beliefs are based on religious views, we should similarly not tolerate private beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity that adversely affect LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] people,” the Georgetown law professor argued.

Feldblum’s admittedly “radical” view is based on what she sees as a “zero-sum game” between religious freedom and the homosexual agenda, where “a gain for one side necessarily entails a corresponding loss for the other side.”

“For those who believe that a homosexual or bisexual orientation is not morally neutral, and that an individual who acts on his or her homosexual orientation is acting in a sinful or harmful manner (to himself or herself and to others), it is problematic when the government passes a law that gives such individuals equal access to all societal institutions,” Feldblum wrote...

Feldblum does recognize that elements of the homosexual agenda may infringe on Americans’ religious liberties. However, Feldblum argues that society should “come down on the side” of homosexual equality at the expense of religious liberty.

The full Senate must now vote on Feldblum's nomination, but a date for that vote has not yet been set. As an EEOC commissioner, Feldblum would rule on cases involving alleged violations of federal employment law, including gender, age, and race discrimination.

"In a major victory for the increasingly embattled freedom of speech, the Texas Supreme Court has just denied a petition by the Islamic Society of Arlington, Texas and six other Texas-based Islamic organizations to review their case against human rights activist (and FrontPage Magazine writer) Joe Kaufman. The case has already gone against the Islamic groups in the initial decision as well as on appeal, but they seem determined to silence Kaufman, and could conceivably try now to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Islamic groups’ suit against Kaufman is a cynical attempt to silence him and prevent his dissemination of truths about them that they would prefer unwary Infidels didn’t know – specifically, the terror ties of Islamic groups in the U.S. Ironically, however, none of the groups that sued Kaufman were actually mentioned in the article they claimed libeled them.

As frivolous as their charges against Kaufman manifestly were, their implications were ominous. Leftists and their Islamic supremacist allies, unable to refute the evidence and arguments their opponents present, are resorting to intimidation both legal and physical.

Joe Kaufman has won another victory this week, but the Islamic supremacist machine in the United States has by no means given up its larger jihad against free speech and free thought. Those who are determined not to be silenced must settle in for a long, hard fight.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Official sleaze in Australia?

Sleazy or not, it sure seems stupid

"Five simple words could bring Brisbane's latest $600,000 tourism campaign unstuck, with a warning its slogan may be considered sleazy.

The six-month print and online blitz, an initiative of Tourism Queensland, is due to start on January 31 and hopes to cement Brisbane as the nation's capital for girls' weekend getaways. But it will carry the catchphrase "Brisbane. What are you up for?" – an expression often used colloquially as a sexual advance.

The campaign is part of the State Government's Tourism Action Plan to 2012 and follows the spectacular flop of Tourism Australia's $180 million "Where The Bloody Hell Are You?" drive with a bikini-clad Lara Bingle in 2006.

That campaign failed overseas with some audiences offended by it and others confused by the Aussie vernacular. Splash Consulting Group managing director Amanda Stevens, who specialises in marketing to women, described the 'What are you up for?' tagline as "sleazy, cheap and nasty". "It is something some drunk bogan would say to someone at a pub," Ms Stevens said.

QUT cultural studies expert, Professor Axel Bruns, described the slogan as "risky". "Its interpretation could go either way," he said. Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor said the slogan's objective was "to highlight the adventures and experiences Brisbane offers to women".

I've never heard the expression myself and I live in Brisbane. I guess it depends on the circles you move in. I would have condemned the slogan as meaningless. I think the ad guys were not as clever as they thought they were. A desperate attempt to be original, I think. If you want to maximize your audience, surely you should use words that everyone can easily understand!

"A campaign that portrays single middle-aged women as cougars who prowl bars looking for sex with young men has landed Air New Zealand in hot water.

In the Discovery Channel-style documentary clip complete with David Attenborough-esque voiceover, a so-called cougar is shown "starving itself on sparse vegetation during the day then hunting large slabs of meat at night" by stalking a young man at a bar. Despite the man's attempts to ward off the woman's advances, the cougar has "not tasted fresh meat for days" and drags her prey to an inner-city apartment.

In the ad, the women, aged in their 30s, 40s and 50s, routinely prey on men in their 20s, many who "pretend to be gay" to avoid them, says the voiceover.

An airline spokeswoman said the campaign was supposed to be "light-hearted" but some older women had "taken a bit of offence to it".

Monday, January 18, 2010

Wrong to say a black man is "not ethnically British"?

Sounds like the whole concept of ethnicity is becoming politically incorrect:

"The BBC has admitted breaching its editorial guidelines after The Mail on Sunday revealed how two leading BNP activists were allowed to make unchallenged ‘racist’ statements on a flagship news broadcast.

A special edition of Radio 1’s Newsbeat programme introduced the two interviewees as ‘young guys who are members of the BNP’ but failed to say the pair were, in fact, key members of the far-Right party’s leadership.

BNP members said east London-born Ashley, pictured here with wife Cheryl Cole, was 'not ethnically British' They also spoke of him ‘coming to this country’, even though Cole was born in East London.

Now the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit has ruled that BBC Newsbeat was wrong not to reveal the two men’s standing in the BNP, and that their views should have faced ‘rigorous challenge’.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Google now suppressing info about Hitler

I guess that they are afraid you will find out that he was a socialist

"So for my junior high project I'm explaining how fascism and communism were actually both forms of socialism, in the sense that both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia subordinated individual property rights to the demands of the supreme leader.

I just wanted to double check that people referred to Hitler as a fascist (as opposed to a Nazi), and so I went to google "Adolf Hitler fascist."

But I noticed something interesting. As I typed in A-d-o-l... Google started bringing up suggestions. By the time I typed in just "adolf," the first ten suggestions popped up, with the #1 being "adolf eichmann." Then when I pressed the spacebar and typed in "h" all the suggestions disappeared.

So apparently Google has no idea what I might be looking for when I type in "adolf hitle"...

Does anyone know what the deal is? Does he get so many google hits that he would be at the top of the list anytime somebody started by typing in "ad..." to look up "address for the elie wiesel fund" and Google doesn't want people getting mad?

I'm not kidding, I'm being serious. Google obviously disabled Hitler's name from popping up as a suggestion.

"A 66-year-OLD Frenchman has been jailed in Abu Dhabi after making a bomb joke on a plane, the French foreign ministry said today.

Pensioner [retired person] Jean-Louis Lioret, who was flying to Bangkok from Paris on Etihad Airways, was arrested after cabin crew overheard him using the word bomb in an exchange with his co-passenger, his brother Michel Lioret said.

During a stopover at Abu Dhabi, Lioret's neighbour asked him to keep a packet on the other seat next to him as it was empty. Lioret's jocular "I hope it's not a bomb" was overheard and sent off alarm bells.

He was taken off the plane and grilled by police and then jailed. He was also informed that the packet contained cigarettes and not a bomb. The French foreign ministry said it was informed of the arrest and was following the case closely.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

British Conservative councillor declares there are 'too many Pakis' in his town

"Paki" is a common abbreviation of "Pakistani"

"A Tory councillor has embarrassed David Cameron by complaining that there were 'too many P***s' in his home town. Smith Benson made the racist remarks during a regeneration meeting to discuss a drop in visitors to Colne, a market town in East Lancashire. He told shocked committee members: 'The problem with Colne is that there are too many takeaways. And too many P***s, that's why people don't come to Colne.'

The comments are sure to infuriate the Tory leader who has been desperate to rid the Conservatives of their 'nasty party' image since he took over the helm five years ago. He has previously declared racism to be 'disgusting' and said it had 'no part to play in our society.'

Despite widespread revulsion at Cllr Benson's comments, Cllr Tony Beckett, leader of the Conservative group on Pendle Council, East Lancashire, has so far refused to discipline him.

Cllr Mohammed Iqbal, leader of the Labour group on Pendle council, said the Tories should sack Cllr Benson for the comments, which he described as 'deplorable and disgusting'.

"Eyes bulging with fury, cheeks purple and moustache bristling, the sergeant major draws himself to his full height and yells: 'You 'orrible little man!' This is the memory for generations of cowering recruits who have incurred the displeasure of the dreaded tyrant.

To the dismay of traditional disciplinarians, however, such scenes are being consigned to history. Commanders have decided that, in a changing society, a gentler approach is required. Young soldiers, they say, should be coaxed, reasoned with, and allowed to think for themselves.

Rather than simply shouting and screaming orders, military instructors are encouraged to 'be progressive' and discuss tasks with recruits. But veterans raised concerns that the new touchy-feely approach could lead to a lack of discipline.

Ex-recruiting sergeant Fred Burden, vice-chairman of the National Malaya and Borneo Veterans' Association UK, said: 'The Army is getting too soft on recruits. 'The British Army has been the finest in the world for years, so what is the point of changing now? If you don't shout orders at recruits there's a risk they won't concentrate.'

Friday, January 15, 2010

Sounds like she had provocation. Claims of sexual abuse are not normally taken lightly. But if the kid had taken a butterknife to school THAT would no doubt have provoked a big uproar.

"A New Jersey mother has been charged with disorderly conduct after cursing out a middle school principal, MyFoxNY.com reported. Cindy Schwalb, the girl’s mother, accused a boy in her 13-year-old daughter’s class of pulling down the girl’s pants in front of other students at Hasbrouck Heights Middle School, MyFoxNY reported.

Schwalb became upset when the incident didn’t receive as much attention as she would have liked at a school board seminar.

She became even more upset after the district superintendent asked her whether her daughter was wearing a thong at the time of the incident. …

After the meeting, Schwalb allegedly cursed out the school’s principal, Edward Bocar.”

"GOOGLE has agreed to take down links to a website that promotes racist views of indigenous Australians.

Aboriginal man Steve Hodder-Watt recently discovered the US-based site by searching "Aboriginal and Encyclopedia" in the search engine. He tried to modify the entry on Encyclopedia Dramatica, a satirical and extremely racist version of Wikipedia, but was blocked from doing so.

Mr Hodder-Watt then undertook legal action, that resulted in Google acknowledging its legal responsibility to remove links from their search engine to the offensive site. His lawyer, George Newhouse, said the site was "one of the most offensive sorts of racial vilification you could possibly find". "It portrays indigenous Australians in the most unsavoury light possible, and you wouldn't want a child stumbling across it," he told ABC Radio.

Although Google no longer links to the page concerned, Bing.com still does! The link to the actual page at issue is here. I have saved the page to disk in case it gets taken down. Encyclopedia Dramatica claims to be a site for satire but much of it is simply poor taste. Ironically, however, the "Aborigine" page is pretty reasonable satire, and like all good satire, has an element of truth. The slang words commonly used for Aborigines are, for instance, accurately described

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Black British councillor could face jail after calling Asian opponent a 'coconut' during budget debate

We read:

"A black councillor who called an Asian colleague a ‘coconut’ during a meeting is facing a possible prison sentence after being charged with racially aggravated harassment. Liberal Democrat Shirley Brown, 47, used the term to describe Jay Jethwa at a Bristol City Council budget debate last year. The jibe is used to accuse someone of betraying their native culture and pandering to 'white' opinion - as the coconut is brown on the outside and white in the middle.

Conservative Mrs Jethwa, 41, said she had not experienced such a severe insult since she came to the UK from India 24 years ago. Mrs Brown used the term after Councillor Jethwa championed a Tory motion to cut funding for the Legacy Commission, which commemorates the abolition of slavery.

The incident on February 24 plunged the council into a race row and prompted a formal complaint by the Conservative Party to the council's head of legal services. In July last year, Mrs Brown was suspended for a month by the council's Standards Committee for using ‘offensive and abusive language’.

But this was overturned on appeal by the Adjudication Panel for England Tribunal Service in September and Mrs Brown remains in her post pending the outcome of her appeal. Avon and Somerset police began investigating the incident in March 2009 and Mrs Brown has now been summonsed to appear before Bristol Magistrates Court on February 15. If the case goes to crown court, the maximum sentence is two years in jail.

Mrs Brown insists the comment was not racist and says it was intended to mean that Mrs Jethwa was ‘in denial of her roots’.

"Decades ago, poor children became known as "disadvantaged" to soften the stigma of poverty. Then they were "at-risk." Now, a Washington lawmaker wants to replace those euphemisms with a new one, "at hope."

Democratic State Sen. Rosa Franklin says negative labels are hurting kids' chances for success and she's not a bit concerned that people will be confused by her proposed rewrite of the 54 places in state law where words like "at risk" and "disadvantaged" are used.

The bill has gotten a warm welcome among fellow lawmakers, state officials and advocacy groups. "We really put too many negatives on our kids," says Franklin, who is the state Senate's president pro tem. "We need to come up with positive terms."

Positive labeling is more than a gimmick or political correctness, Franklin says. She believes her idea could lead to a paradigm shift in state government and to changes in classrooms across the state....

Wally Endicott, the northwest director of the Phoenix-based Children of Hope, says he was excited to talk to Franklin about the bill. But he is not thrilled with the idea of using "children at hope" to refer just to the disadvantaged. His group uses the concept to talk about all kids, not just those in poverty, because all children have obstacles to their success.

If Franklin's proposal is approved, Pink has no doubts the idea has the potential to catch on quickly. Years from now, he says, "at hope" could even make Lake Superior's List of Banished Words.

The stupid Leftist belief in verbal magic again. People will realize very quickly that "at hope" means "dummy" and will use "at hope" mockingly -- so nothing positive will be achieved. It may even lead to dummies being treated more scornfully.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

"CANADA'S second-oldest magazine, The Beaver, is changing its name after 90 years because the title is too often censored by online porn filters, preventing it from reaching new online readers.

The Winnipeg-based magazine was launched in 1920 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Hudson's Bay Company and the fur trade that led to the early exploration of Canada. But in modern times, the term "beaver'' has become slang for women's genitals.

"The Beaver was an impediment online,'' publisher Deborah Morrison said. "Several readers asked us to change the title because their spam filters at home or at work were blocking it,'' she said. "I've even had emails bounce back because I had inadvertently typed the term in the heading.''

"Nearly a century ago, it probably seemed the perfect name for a magazine about the fur trade and Canada's northwest frontier. There was only one interpretation for the word then. "But you're likely to find a lot of (porn) sites now if you search for the title of our history magazine online,'' she said.

Print subscriptions to the Winnipeg-based magazine, which publishes six issues a year, range between 45,000 and 50,000. It is published by Canada's National History Society.

The magazine that chronicles Canada's past will publish its last issue under the old banner in February/March. Thereafter, it will be known under the less evocative name of Canada's History.

The British government's HUGE list of restricted speech for journalists

All allegedly aimed at fostering community cohesion. If they were really concerned about community cohesion they would not have let in huge numbers of culturally incompatible immigrants. Just a few excerpts from the speech code below. Even "itinerant" is incorrect. And did you realise that "Moslem" is offensive?

"Words matter. Say what you mean to say Mistakes can mislead public opinion and stir up social unrest. So, being accurate is not just a matter of being politically correct. It is important to know what terms are appropriate to describe particular groups within the population. The following will be helpful.

Non-white. Except in a statistical context, this is a term best avoided since it somewhat discourteously describes people of black and Asian backgrounds as what they are not, rather than what they are. Similarly, the term `non-Christian' is to be avoided.

Ethnic. This should not be used only of non-white people. We are all `ethnic'. It is not a noun and the term `ethnics' should be avoided. Refer to minority ethnic communities or groups or, for short, to ethnic minorities. Indian, Pakistani etc.

Terms used principally of people of the nationality of the countries in question. If the person is, in fact British, it is better to refer to them as `of Pakistani background' or `Pakistani British' or `British Pakistani'.

Black is a description that can apply without offence to African, Caribbean, Arab and Asian, but some newspapers reasonably draw a distinction between black (of African descent), Asian and Arab, as do some members of the communities concerned.

Coloured is generally regarded as an insult by black people. Similarly, `negro', a term historically used by some to describe people of black African descent but which is no longer used and widely considered offensive.

Blacks and Asians. `Black' and `Asian' should not be regarded as nouns. Refer to black people or an Asian woman where the context demands the distinction, and in the same way write about a white man. Remember we are all people, not just racial groups. Prefer African- Caribbean to Afro-Caribbean.

Mixed race. This adjective is generally used to describe people with parentage of more than one ethnic background. `Half-caste' and `mulatto' are old terms which are unacceptable and offensive.

Gypsies/Travellers. People belonging to ethnic groups originating in India and Ireland respectively. Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers are protected by race relations legislation. People are born to those groups. They cannot become Gypsies or Irish Travellers. Gypsies from eastern Europe are known as Roma Gypsies and share the same ethnicity as Romany Gypsies in the UK.

Economic migrant. A person who comes to the UK seeking work or a job he or she has already obtained. The government has encouraged economic migration to fill skill shortages, as in the health service.

Immigrant. A person who has come to the UK by choice, perhaps to work or study or to join his or her family. Most immigrants in the UK are white; all children of immigrants born in the UK are British, not immigrants; and most members of ethnic minorities living in the UK were born in Britain and are therefore British.

Illegal immigrant. A person who has been refused such status and has failed to respond to a removal notice to quit Britain.

Refugee status. The legal status granted to persons who prove that they have fled their country for reasons stated in the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention. In the UK, people recognised as refugees are given Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). They are entitled to work and to state benefits. This status is permanent.

Humanitarian status. This is granted to people who have compelling humanitarian reasons preventing their return home, such as fleeing war or inhumane and degrading treatment. In the UK, these people are granted Exceptional Leave to Remain (ELR). They are also entitled to work and to state benefits. Their status can be short-lived or long and is often made permanent.

Failed asylum seeker. Someone who has tried for asylum but has failed to meet the criteria. But it doesn't necessarily mean he is expelled. The applicant may be granted humanitarian status and be allowed to remain.

Illegal entrant or `clandestine' (term used by Government). Someone who has smuggled him or herself into the UK, perhaps without any intention of applying for asylum. Such illegal entrants should not be referred to as asylum seekers.

Is it correct to write Muslim or Moslem? Muslim is preferred. People refer to themselves as Muslims. Many regard Moslem as a term of abuse, like people of African descent dislike being called negroes. Also avoid Mohammedan and Musselman.

Is jihad a holy war? No. Literally it means striving or struggle, not holy war. There are two main types of jihad: the greater jihad and the lesser jihad. The greater is the struggle against sin and temptation; the lesser involves missionary activities and the conflict against evil. Jihad can be the collective defence of the Muslim community. Only recently has it become synonymous with armed struggle.

Are Gypsies and Irish Travellers ethnic minorities? Yes. They are recognised as racial groups by law. Some stories and headlines hold them up to public contempt because of what they are rather than what an individual or some individuals have done. It hardly needs saying that words like gypos, pikeys and tinkers are regarded as derogatory. So is itinerants.

Gypsies and Travellers. By spelling Gypsies with a `y' rather than an `i' you get their name right.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Prosecutors say Anti-Muslim cartoons protected by Constitution

This guy would be in BIG trouble in Britain or Europe

"In a story that has been picked up by The New York Times and the AP, The St. Cloud Times is reporting that two county prosecutors will not file charges against a man they say has admitted to posting anti-Musim cartoons near a mosque, a Somali-owned store and other places in and around St. Cloud.

Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall and Benton County Attorney Robert Raupp, in separate letters to St. Cloud City Attorney Jan Petersen, said the cartoons showing the Prophet Muhammad having sex with animals represented protected speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations condemned the cartoons as hate speech.

Investigators say the man told them that Muslims are "anti-Christian" and that he found the images online and thought it would be "cool" to post them on utility poles in the St. Cloud area.

"The editor-in-chief of the Swiss magazine Weltwoche, Roger Köppel, has been indicted by Socialists in Zurich. The reason: he violated an anti-racism law. On talk shows, according to the Socialist thought-gestapo, Köppel "systematically denigrated and vilified members of the Islamic religion and thus crossed the borders of racism.” The guardians of political correctness subsequently filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor in Zurich.

The Jungsozialisten proudly announce: "Roger Köppel, editor and editor-in-chief of the Weltwoche, with numerous statements in the comments in the editions 43 and 47 of Weltwochehas made it clear that the people of the Islamic faith who live in Switzerland are a fundamental threat to security and order of the country due to their religion, from his perspective, and that one therefore would not need to be tolerant towards them. He ascribes to the Muslim women and Muslims in general an "unfulfilled nostalgia for the political coup”, because they "right up to today have not got over the loss of their empire.” The present Islam wants to be "a political domination system”, even a "political-religious ideology of conquest”, that is "hostile towards the current order” and seeks "extension, subversion and conquest.

In the above-mentioned television broadcast "Tele Züri” he made similar statements, and included the matching opinion that Muslim women and Muslim men living in Switzerland should be considered members of "a hostile army”.

"Rat Portage First Nation Chief Ken Skead says he's upset with the people, who are posting videos of homeless people on the Internet. The clips, which are listed under the sarcastic title Kenora's Finest, shouldn't be there, he said. "That's not proper," he told the newspaper last Tuesday. "It bothers me a lot and I don't want them to appear."

The postings are accompanied by dramatic music, and they've attracted a few thousand views each. There are also comments, which date back at least five months. "It's just gotta stop," Skead said, adding they didn't add anything to relations between the First Nation and city residents.

"A Naples high school student was charged with felony battery over a scuffle with another student who had a Confederate flag displayed on his car.

Collier County Sheriff's deputies responded to Lely High School Friday to a complaint that one student tried to pull another student out of the car.

A report shows that 18-year-old Alfredo David was arrested at the scene. The victim was not identified. He told authorities David taunted him to try to start a fight over the flag, punched him in the chest through the open windows and then tried to pull him out of the car.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Reid apologizes for mentioning that Obama is black

Or so it seems:

"The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate apologized on Saturday for comments he made about Barack Obama's race during the 2008 presidential bid and are quoted in a yet-to-be-released book about the campaign.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada described in private then-Sen. Barack Obama as "light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Obama is the nation's first African-American president.

"I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words. I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African-Americans for my improper comments," Reid said in a statement released after the excerpts were first reported on the Web site of The Atlantic.

Blacks do have some speech patterns of their own -- known to some as "Ebonics" -- and blacks do attach significance to how light-skinned they are -- with lighter skin being more prestigious -- but you are not supposed to mention any of that, apparently. Reality is censored!

"Pikey" is certainly a derogatory term in Britain and basically means a traveller (which Gypsies generally are) but it can also be used as a mild insult towards ordinary white working class Britons. But the word was not actually used. The insult existed only in the mind of a British bureaucrat!

"A wealthy businessman was arrested at home in front of his wife and young son over an email which council officials deemed ‘offensive’ to gipsies – but which he had not even written.

The email, concerning a planning appeal by a gipsy, included the phrase: ‘It’s the 'do as you likey' attitude that I am against.’ Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’.

Sussex Police said they had arrested the businessman over ‘suspicion of committing a racial or religious-aggravated offence’. After consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, it was decided to take no further action against Mr Osmond.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

An example from Britain of how offensive speech SHOULD be stopped

By critical speech in reply

"An advertising campaign that featured the message “Career women make bad mothers” has been pulled from about 4,000 billboards around the country after a vehement response by irate mothers. The Outdoor Advertising Association (OAA) hoped that its £1.25 million campaign, which also included a slogan designed to provoke England football fans that read “1966 — It won’t happen this year”, would show the power of billboards to inspire debate at a dedicated website, but they underestimated the potency of maternal wrath.

Mothers did indeed go online in droves, but not to Britainthinks, the internet forum set up by the advertisers. Instead, they flocked to Mumsnet, the website that embarrassed Gordon Brown in October when he declined to reveal his favourite biscuit. In a message thread that ran to almost 1,000 posts, they published details of the creative agency responsible for the advert, its other clients and anyone who could be used to exert pressure to have the posters withdrawn.

Four days later, shell-shocked by the torrent of abuse directed at them, the OAA apologised and promised to remove or cover up the posters as soon as possible. Beta, the agency that created the advert, also caved in to pressure yesterday. Garry Lace, Beta’s co-founder, had demanded that Mumsnet compensate him and his company for damage to their reputations, but capitulated yesterday with an apology.

"Google's search engine returns common results to most queries as you type. But the "don't be evil" company appears to be censoring its results when it comes to Islam.

Type a few words into the search field on Google's home page and the engine automatically returns a helpful list of popular, similar searches for the words you've typed in so far -- a convenient way to find the right information.

Enter "Christianity is" and you'll find results that, while offensive, at least indicate common discussions on the Internet. Likewise, type "Judaism is" and Google suggests other, potentially offensive searches such as "Judaism is false" and "Judaism is not a race."

But type "Islam is" into the search engine and Google's auto-results pane mysteriously vanishes, leading some to conclude that Google, whose mantra is "don't be evil," is censoring its search results.

Friday, January 08, 2010

A BBC attack on red hair?

We read:

"I’m still not ginger,” cried the new Doctor Who after his latest regeneration. But the BBC has insisted that the Time Lord intended this as a statement of regret after it received complaints from viewers.

The corporation issued a statement denying that the popular series was pursuing an “anti-ginger agenda” after parents of red-headed children complained about Matt Smith’s first words: “I’ve still got legs. Arms, hands, lots of fingers, eyes, hair,” said Smith, 27, after completing his regeneration from David Tennant. Checking his new look, the eleventh actor to play the Doctor continued: “I’m not a doll. I’m still not ginger.”

Angry parents complained to the BBC that the comment, made in an episode seen by 11 million viewers, would encourage bullying of their ginger haired children.

"Gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign has written to CBS’s Late Show With David Letterman demanding an apology for a skit that mocked President Obama’s transgender appointee to monitor military technology exports.

In a skit aired Tuesday night, Letterman announced that President Obama had appointed Amanda Simpson, a 30-year veteran of the defense and aerospace industries, to a Commerce Department position, and noted that Simpson had once been a man.

As a photo of Simpson came up on the screen, Alan Kalter, the show’s announcer, could be heard exclaiming, ‘What? Amanda? Amanda used to be a dude?’ Kalter is then seen running out of the studio, exclaiming ‘Oh my God!’ in what was jokingly meant to suggest a Crying Game-like punchline to a sexual relationship.”

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Conservative blacks invisible and inaudible -- to Leftists

We read:

"On the January 5 edition of his MSNBC program "Hardball," Chris Matthews claimed that everyone participating in tea party rallies such as the one held in Washington, D.C. on September 12, 2009 were white. In a discussion with Mark McKinnon of the Daily Beast and Susan Page of USA Today, Matthews said: "And they're monochromatic, right?... Meaning they're all white. All of them -- every single one of them -- is white."

Members of the Project 21 black leadership disagree. They were there. Bob Parks, a Project 21 member from Virginia, said: "Here's a news flash for Chris Matthews. I was there. So was my son. Last time I checked, both of us are black -- and we weren't the only black people there. I know other black people who attended the September 12 rally in Washington, including some of the ones who spoke at the podium! I guess the MSNBC camera people missed them."

"To me, this means Chris Matthews thinks that blacks who don't toe the liberal line are either invisible - and apparently irrelevant - or such sellouts that they've become white. Obviously, he doesn't have the guts to have us on 'Hardball' so he can call us all-white 'teabaggers' to our faces."

Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli of New York was one of the speakers at the September 12 rally. She said: "Chris Matthews' statement exposes how his narrow-minded liberal bias blinds him to the truth. I was a speaker at the FreedomWorks 9.12 March on D.C. and several similar rallies in Pennsylvania. I'm also an active member in a local tea party organization. The tea party movement is not about color. It is about Americans expressing their concerns about the growth of government which will diminish individual liberty."

Borelli continued: "Chris Matthews may be the first liberal of the new year to play the race card to try to stifle First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly, but I'm sure he won't be the last."

I have always liked George Carey. He is a sincere man. He even believes in God, which is rare among Anglican bishops.

"Lord Carey of Clifton has proved himself to be a brave man today. The former Archbishop of Canterbury has signed a statement by the cross-party group on balanced migration which declares that “70 million is too many”. In other words, he is calling for urgent measures to limit immigration so the British population does not reach that figure in 2029, which is what will happen unless we tighten our borders...

None of his fellow bishops has signed the document, which says:

We are gravely concerned about the rapid increase in the population of England that is now forecast. We note that the official projections show the population of the UK will increase from 61.4 million in 2008 to exceed 70 million by 2029. Over the next 25 years the population will increase by 10 million, nearly all of the increase being in England. 70% – 7 million – will be due to immigration. We believe that immigration on such a scale will have a significant impact on our public services, our quality of life and on the nature of our society.

Carey, like many of the other signatories, has a long track record of fighting racism. And that is precisely why he has signed this document: because he believes that unchecked immigration will hand votes to the Far Right....

Anyway, the point is that never again will Anglican clerics be able to say that calling for urgent measures to call immigration is racist by definition, because they’ll be calling the Rt Rev and Rt Hon Lord Carey a racist. Which he most certainly is not.

"An ad by KFC showing a man giving chicken to West Indies fans has been slammed as racist. In the "cricket survival guide" ad, an Australian fan named Mick asks viewers "Need a tip when you're stuck in an awkward situation?" after being surrounded by cheering West Indies fans.

He then shares a bucket of KFC chicken with fans around him to calm the situation. The video has caused a massive stir in the US after it was posted on YouTube. The ad has been seen by some in the US as a reference to racial stereotype that African Americans eat fried chicken.

KFC Australia has acknowledged that the ad could be perceived as racist. They said the ad had been "misinterpreted by a segment of people in the US" in a statement released this morning. "It is a light-hearted reference to the West Indian cricket team," the statement read. "The ad was reproduced online in the US without KFC's permission, where we are told a culturally-based stereotype exists, leading to the incorrect assertion of racism.

I read this novel some years back and always wondered when it would come under fire:

"In order to protect the public’s delicate sensibilities, conservative Netherlands-based Christian publisher WordBridge Publishing has reprinted Joseph Conrad’s The N*gger of the Narcissus as The N-word of the Narcissus. According to the publisher’s website, “the past needs to [be] translated into the present.”

The book, now on sale via Amazon for $9.99, includes this description from the publisher:

WordBridge Publishing has performed a public service in putting Joseph Conrad’s neglected classic into a form accessible to modern readers. This new version addresses the reason for its neglect: the profusion of the so-called n-word throughout its pages. Hence, the introduction of “n-word” throughout the text, to remove this offence to modern sensibilities. The N-word of the Narcissus tells the tale of a fateful voyage of a British sailing ship, and on that voyage the ability of a lone black man to take the crew hostage. The ability of this man to manipulate an entire ship’s crew can no longer be seen as a mere exercise in storytelling. Conrad in fact appears to have been the first to highlight the phenomenon of manipulation based in white guilt.

Where to draw the line between “public service” and censorship? Is it better to read this strangely titled version rather than the original? Judging by the one-star Amazon reviews and the reaction of the online community, maybe not.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

I have heard this film condemned as Greenie propaganda but this is a bit of a surprise. But it is probably the mark of a good film that you can see lots of different things in it

"It appears I wasn’t the only one to pick up on Avatar’s racist subtext. Critics universally agree that the 3D blockbuster is an astounding spectacle, but there is now a storm raging over its hidden messages – as The Week and Yahoo Movies both point out. I’ve received dozens of emails and tweets on the subject, the latest one arguing bluntly that I’ve read too much into the film: “Isn’t Avatar simply about good guys vs. bad guys?”, my correspondent asks.

And the answer is: No, Avatar is not just a good vs. bad guys film. As Annalee Newitz observes on IO9.com, “it’s undeniable that the film – like alien apartheid flick District 9, released earlier this year – is emphatically a fantasy about race.” I agree, Avatar is plainly concerned with race. The Na’vi might be blue aliens – but they’re also blue aliens with Maasai-style necklaces, East African tribal jewellery, dreadlocked hair, bows, arrows and facepaint, acted by mostly black actors. They’re also rescued from destruction by a white character – played, of course, by a white actor – who becomes one of them (and later on their leader). It’s a classic scenario, says Newitz, which you’ll have seen before “in non-scifi epics from Dances With Wolves to The Last Samurai, where a white guy manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of coluor and eventually becomes its most awesome member.”

It’s this fantasy – the white liberal man as the saviour of the so-called primitive “natives” – which I found so nauseatingly patronising.

"When our ways of life trap us into a closed world of friends who look, look, or believe like us, elaborating great and beautiful philosophies of tolerance and pluralism is a highly virtual petition of generosity, an extremely subtle way of avoiding the need to be open-minded. Those are but good intentions that amounts to making a show of being anti-racist in intellectual terms, even though we come across no –or almost no—Blacks, Arabs or Asians (or White, or others, if you are Black, Arab or Asian) in our day to day lives. Being opposed to anti-Semitism or Islamophobia whilst living, deliberately or otherwise, at a respectable distance from Jews and Muslims is certainly an honourable intellectual stance, but basically it tells us nothing about the real personal attitudes of the human being who theorizes in that way.

He goes on to say that racial animosity rarely springs from theory but from life experiences:

When ‘the others’ seem to be confident and serene when we ourselves are unsure of our truths; when their visibility disturbs our living space and their presence upsets our habits; when whey seem to steal the few jobs available; when their prosperity reminds us of our difficulties or even poverty .. then they stir up within us emotions that are to human beings what the survival instinct is to animals. The reaction is almost uncontrollable: all our fine words become meaningless, and we are back to our raw humanity. We have to come to terms with emotions, dispositions of the heart and our ‘gut’ reactions that colonize our minds with fear, suspicion, rejection and prejudices. Purely intellectual racism is a minority, and often, marginal phenomenon. The rejection –conscious or otherwise—of the other always feeds on a mixture of doubts, fear, insecurity and habits that have been upset, combined with real or fantasized rivalry for wealth, numbers or strength: the day to day problems of immigration, unemployment, poverty, of the feeling of being dispossessed, invaded and so on. We are indeed at the heart of humanity and of life: we may well despise and denounce the dogmatists and the racists in our cosy spaces but it is most unfair not to take full account of the often highly instinctive fears and doubts which, in concrete situations, produce the worst rejections of the other.

There is much truth in that but I think he is limited in seeing only negative explanations for ethnic consciousness. He omits the old "birds of a feather flock together" explanation. It is natural (and probably safest) to feel most at ease among others like ourselves and we tend to seek out others like ourselves for that reason. That is why many social clubs used to have ethnic criteria for admission until such rules were mostly outlawed.

I myself am always especially delighted to see red-headed children about the place so does that make me a "hairist"? Maybe it does but since my father had red hair and my son has a red beard, I hope I can be excused. If I can't like what is close to me it would be a sad day. Just today when I was walking home I passed a young mother who had two little redheaded children in tow. As we passed, I said to her how lucky she was to have two little carrot-tops. She agreed.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it has received a number of complaints from concerned Muslims who watched an interview last night on CNN during which Graham stated in part: "...we have many Muslims that live in this country. But true Islam cannot be practiced in this country. You can't beat your wife. You cannot murder your children if you think they've committed adultery or something like that, which they do practice in these other countries... I don't agree with the teachings of Islam and I find it to be a very violent religion."

"The remark by Mount Ogden Middle School teacher, Judy Sepulveda, calling black student Thomas Terry, 14, "a lazy monkey" was inappropriate and apologies to Terry's family from the Ogden School District and Mount Ogden Principal Trevor Wilson were the right thing to do.

The remark, even if it was not intended as a racial slur by Sepulveda, carries the connotation of such. It is no secret to any informed person that racists have in the past compared blacks to monkeys and apes, etc. Such word usage, designed to deliberately demean, is low-class, disgusting and hurtful to blacks.

If the behavior is monkey-like why not call it that? Leftists thought GWB was monkey-like so said so. What am I missing here? Is it the problem that many blacks really do act like irresponsible monkeys whereas GWB did not? Is it another case of "truth hurts"?

Google might block this blog in retaliation for my asking those questions so be sure to bookmark the mirror site for this blog. The Attorney General of the United States has called for an "open" and "forthright" national discussion about race, however, so maybe I will be let off. Don't try it in an American school, though.

Is the American national anthem politically incorrect? From the 4th verse:Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

Mohammad

The truth can be offensive to some but it must be said

"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."

Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."

The double standard: Atheists can put up signs and billboards saying that Christianity is wrong and that is hunky dory. But if a Christian says that homosexuality is wrong, that is attacked as "hate speech"

One for the militant atheists to consider: "...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" -- Thomas Jefferson

"I think no subject should be off-limits, and I regard the laws in many Continental countries criminalizing Holocaust denial as philosophically repugnant and practically useless – in that they confirm to Jew-haters that the Jews control everything (otherwise why aren’t we allowed to talk about it?)" -- Mark Steyn

Voltaire's most famous saying was actually a summary of Voltaire's thinking by one of his biographers rather than something Voltaire said himself. Nonetheless it is a wholly admirable sentiment: "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it". I am of a similar mind.

The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.

Why conservatives should not respond to Leftist abuse: "Never wrestle with a pig, because you'll both just get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

The KKK were members of the DEMOCRATIC party. Google "Klanbake" if you doubt it

A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.

Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.

Categorization is a basic human survival skill so racism as the Left define it (i.e. any awareness of race) is in fact neither right nor wrong. It is simply human

Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?

If any mention of racial differences is racist then all Leftists are racist too -- as "affirmative action" is an explicit reference to racial differences

Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862

Gimlet-eyed Leftist haters sometimes pounce on the word "white" as racist. Will the time come when we have to refer to the White House as the "Full spectrum of light" House?

The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand

Mostly, a gaffe is just truth slipping out

Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.

It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."

"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica

Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech

The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

I despair of the ADL. Jews have enough problems already and yet in the ADL one has a prominent Jewish organization that does its best to make itself offensive to Christians. Their Leftism is more important to them than the welfare of Jewry -- which is the exact opposite of what they ostensibly stand for! Jewish cleverness seems to vanish when politics are involved. Fortunately, Christians are true to their saviour and have loving hearts. Jewish dissatisfaction with the myopia of the ADL is outlined here. Note that Foxy was too grand to reply to it.

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here